I took the K5 for a test ride and...

[tigersaw]

Bought one before I went home. Took out the K5 and also the other suggestion from this group, Kawasaki Z750 for an hour each. I loved the SV, thought far less of the Kwak. I did find I was using all the power the SV had to give, and maybe I'll be wanting more after a while, but I just loved everything about it - the torque, the engine braking, the balance.. etc etc. Roll on next Saturday morning

[fizzwheel]

Nice one

I did find I was using all the power the SV had to give, and maybe I'll be wanting more after a while,

Yep this is true, first time i bought an naked SV, i nearly pooed my pants as i rolled it off the pavement onto Seven Sisters Road. Mind you I only passed my test the week prior. Now, after trading that in for a Fazer6 I couldnt wait for the grunt of the twin again. So that had to go and now onto a SV K3 (bout a year now) and just love it. But trust me you will want more as most of us do, but if your honest with yourself the SV does it all......

why don't you ride the SV1000?

tiger, the Z750 didn't impress????? why not? I've earmarked the Zed as my next bike so would love your opinion on it...

as for the SV buy..................... good choice!

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by frednuff

why don't you ride the SV1000?

I would have done if they had one avaialable. Actually it was hard to stick with the two bikes I had originally asked for, when there was the entire Ducati range, GSX R1, Fireblade etc all there for the asking on free demo. Talk about kids in a sweet shop - it was a busy day at our motorcycle shop

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by Dirty Baz

tiger, the Z750 didn't impress????? why not? I've earmarked the Zed as my next bike so would love your opinion on it...

I rode it straight after the SV, so immediately I was working with a different engine, all that low down grunt was missing. The mirrors were useless, no matter what I set them to all I really saw was my arms. (Same for the Ducati). I found there to be too much vibration once I got it above 100mph, and much more wind exposure than the SV650S. (However I was grateful to be sitting up straighter after my hour on the SV). It certainly was willing once you got the engine on the boil, but thats not really what I was looking for. Maybe the suspension setup was not quite right for me either, on one occasion I tried to flick past a car at high speed and it just didn't do as I expected. There appears to be no front fork adjustment at all. The analogue speedo is hard to read too, not enough contrast and small numerals. (A neat trick though is when you first turn on the ignition - the dials both do a self test and and turn forwards and back again). Bearing in mind this bike costs a full £1k more than the SV650S, I dismissed it from my shopping list very quickly.

Originally Posted by tigersaw

Bought one before I went home.

as seen as no one else has asked yet, what color did you get?

[tigersaw]

Originally Posted by 650newb

as seen as no one else has asked yet, what color did you get?

Blue. They had all 3 colours in stock, I thought the Red was not a very nice shade, looked pinkish in the sunlight. Black with black wheels and black frame - too black.

Kind of glad to read this as I've been semi-thinking of getting a z750 as the next bike instead of another SV... what if both the z750 and SV650 were available for the same money? George White in London has 2004 pre-reg models of each for just under £4k... would that have swayed you or would you still have gone for the SV? I really like that instant grunt (and I only ever had a restricted 33bhp SV) and would never want to give that up for more top end power, plus I thought the handling, etc. on the SV was fine so not after anything more in that area.